Contents

Life

After his Fachhochschulreife (Advanced Technical
College Certificate) in 1983, Niebel served for eight years as a paratrooper in the Bundeswehr in Calw. As of February 2007, he is Hauptmann of the reserve.
He then studied at the German Academy of Business and
Administration in Mannheim
and finished his studies in 1993 as Diplom-Verwaltungswirt
(similar to a Master of Public
Administration degree). From 1993 to 1998, he worked at an
employment bureau in Sinsheim, a part of the Federal Employment
Office of Heidelberg.

Niebel is married and has three sons.

Political
career

Dirk Niebel speaking in Göttingen

In 1977, Niebel joined the Junge Union, and in 1979, the CDU. He left both
in 1981.

In 1990, he joined the FDP and was co-founder
of the Heidelberg
division of the Junge Liberale. Since 2003,
Niebel is a member of the Federal Board of the FDP and of the
curatorship of the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation. On May 5, 2005, the Federal Board elected him
secretary general of the FDP with 92.4 % of the votes.

Niebel is a member of the Bundestag since 1998. From 2002 to 2005, he
was chairman of the State group of Baden-Württemberg in the faction of
the FDP. Since 1998, he is the speaker of the faction when it comes
to Employment Politics. In addition to this, Niebel is a member of
the group of German-Israeli parliament members since 1998.

Since 2000, Niebel is vice president of the Deutsch-Israelische
Gesellschaft.

Main
Viewpoint

Niebel advocates a radical reform of the Federal Employment
Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). According to him, it
should only manage and pay off the Unemployment insurance. [1]